dotWOM

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Back in December, I had published a marketoon by Greg Kessler on my LinkedIn account, suggesting we would be relying on VR headsets to paint a vision of the
future. The idea behind this cartoon is the topic of a New York Times real
estate section article this week. 'A New Dimension in Home Buying' by Jennifer Miller shows how Hallstead Realty is selling multi-million dollar properties by
showing prospects a vision of what these condos will be through VR headsets.
It's about evoking emotions and converting lookers to buyers when in the raw
construction phase.

Hallstead's initiative is not only a clever gimmick, but
hope that VR will have real commercial applications beyond gaming. Similar to
real estate, VR headsets can be used in retail to show how to dress, cook, or
experience a vacation. In auto, it can help drivers test their car in the
wilderness, or through narrow streets of old European cities without leaving
the dealer's showroom. If done right, VR stories can help propel new authors to
best seller status by showing a preview of what those 300 pages hold.

As companies tie increasing profits to VR marketing, this
type of storytelling will become mainstream (and with hopefully more attractive
headsets)

Monday, November 30, 2015

It was a pleasure to do this podcast with Bryan Adams, founder and CEO of creative agency Ph. Creative, about word of mouth marketing. Goosebumps (co-authored by Bryan Adams and Dave Hazelhurst of Ph. Creative) is full of great tips and tools on digital marketing. We discussed how to:

Action: Tune off! Or enable others to do so.
Check out how Ikea
helps customers design serene surroundings. See how JetBlue
greets Web site visitors with Aruba get-away options. If you need more help, download
the Dinner Mode app by Sloane Davidson to
focus on your food and conversation at meal times.

Implication: Device
and chip makers will compete with telecom players will gain a bigger share of
home networking. They will want consumers to have their brands to be top of
mind and trust them with more personal information.

Action:

1-Seize the
opportunity to re-brand, with new products and capabilities that go beyond communication.

2-Put
permission marketing ahead of precision marketing when messaging consumers
about their home.

3-Communicate
benefits such as convenience, time-saving and comfort when setting up a
home network and assure consumers their information (e.g., lifestyle habits,
address and app usage) will be kept safe.

Would you like to use your phone or a wearable device to
manage your home-based activities? Or would you find it intrusive?

Friday, March 6, 2015

Emerging trend: Dark social,
as in private social media conversations (e.g., SMS, email, Snapchat, Whatsapp,
FB messenger), is significantly bigger in volume and impact more decisions than
what we coin as word of mouth today. This trend was first brought to public attention by the Atlantic. And now according to a new study from Radium One cited in Media
Post

Implication: Critical
opinions about family, health, politics, and religion will largely remain in
private digital circles. Marketers will need to rely on self-reported data
(e.g., surveys, interviews) and trusted relationships to gauge brand and other
topic mentions in dark social.

Action:1- Improve
email targeting2- Make your content hyper relevant to your target audience. 3- Invest in social
CRM team and infrastructure to keep close connections with customers who will take
the information to their friends and family, and give you feedback.

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About Me

I am a VP of Media Analytics Consulting at Nielsen and the author of Implementing Word of Mouth Marketing. My goal is to provide a window to the future by showing what's next in social media through smart research and case studies. The posts reflect my personal opinions, not those of my employer.